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Purpose
Think of this as a big family reunion where everyone is wearing name tags and looks interesting.Membership is limited to family members. That's still a lot of people, many of whom are strangers to one another. The primary purpose of this site is to introduce these cousins, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, and multiple generations to one another.
That is why every member's full name is shown: there's no anonymity here.
Each of us has stacks of old photos, letters, and other ephemera that have been handed down to us, and much of their context and stories have not come with them. But by sharing them we often find someone who can help provide the background information and bring the scene to life. I'm trying to draw together the knowledge distributed across many individual family members so we can all benefit from it. For this I need your help. I hope you find the prospect of learning more about generations past and present sufficiently interesting that you will contribute your own knowledge to this enterprise.
Think of this as an oversized family photo album with greatly expanded and detailed information about the photos and their backstories.
Think of it as also a "Genealogy Lite" site, where you can trace how you're related to other members, as well as to the people shown in the photos or mentioned in the letters. Postings of announcements of births, birthdays, graduations, weddings, deaths, and other major life events are encouraged, especially if they include critical information like full name and date. I'll also be posting some death certificates because they not only give the full name of the decedent as well as the date of death, but also include the birth date, locations of each, as well as identify the parents, cause of death, and other useful information.
Also think of it as a place to learn from the trials and tribulations of others how to best respond to your own challenges.
I'm trying to walk a fine line here: I really want this to be a private site where family matters can be discussed safely. In public life we always have to present the best side -- everyone's competent, well-loved, and there's no internal trouble or strife. But our ancestors and we ourselves have not and do not live in such Nirvana. I want this to be a place where we can discuss the ills and troubles life has thrown at us and other family members -- not to speak ill of the dead or one another -- but to better understand the issues and the coping mechanisms and strategies others have used and learn from them what does or does not work.
If you really believe that a piece of information should also be available on some other site (and some of it should be), encourage the contributor of that information to post it there themselves. It is theirs and they should be the ones to decide where it is be posted.
--Dana Trout
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